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Story:Kings of Strife/Part 41
Part Forty-One Vainia walked up to her Knight with disbelief. “What are you doing here? What happened to your mission?” She was in disbelief, but she was not disappointed. A hint of an awed smile peeked on her cheeks, rosy with heat. The two Mortisian soldiers looked at her with confusion and frustration, but she waved them off and gestured for Veit to come inside the gates. “It happened. I have something for you,” Veit said, but he looked back at the two guards with trepidation and thinly veiled resentment. The princess understood. “Follow me.” She commanded quietly, and started off the long walk through the dark courtyards towards her Tower of Isolation. “You shouldn’t be here,” she realized. Constantus Veit bit his lip and frowned. It was foolish to think that nobody in the castle would recognize him as Gin Taoris, the Crimson Death. “Neither should you. What happened?” His smooth avoidance of the topic was not something that went beneath Vainia’s notice, but she let it go and answered him after a moment. “As you can see, I lost at Icarun.” She looked back at him with a glare, making it clear that she wasn’t in the mood for any spite. “The Nneonians betrayed us, and Inusia had reinforcements.” She frowned, hard. “They knew of the attack beforehand. Nneoh was going to betray me from the start.” Veit sighed. “You are the only one you can trust in this world.” He spoke with resignation – and experience. “Only myself?” Vainia looked back at him once again, with a raised eyebrow this time. “I trust you.” “Don’t.” “You presume to command me again.” She spoke lightly and easily, the presence of her Knight temporarily wiping clean the burden of the politics she had been dealing with for an entire day now. “Tell me, what happened in Honris? Did President Jolynus agree to my terms?” She could hear the pause and hesitation that Veit had. “She recently… resigned. A new president took over, and she’s… dangerous.” “Wait, what? A new president? I heard nothing of this. Why didn’t Baron Kamanus tell me about any of this…?” “The soldiers there didn’t seem to have any answers either. She was…” Veit involuntarily shivered. “A lesser man would have failed. She didn’t agree to your terms, so I brought what appears to be the source of her power. It is now yours.” The tall man increased his stride to walk effortlessly next to Vainia, and held out a medium-sized bright blue jewel to her. The princess looked at it with surprise. “A jewel…? What am I supposed to do with this, Veit.?” “Another one, yes. These objects… They have power.” The Knight’s brow furrowed as he looked down at the magical artifact with disgruntled ignorance. “I brought you a similar one in Shorekeep the other day, and the new President had one of these. The abilities she had…” He had nothing to say. The President had defied logic, and if he didn’t have his own inexplicable immortality, he wouldn’t have believed his own tale. “Wait, you brought me…?” Vainia took the Crystal gingerly, and thought back to the last night, when her and her Knight had spoken in her room. Another Crystal - that was the gift he had given her? She had put it away in a drawer and didn’t even remove the canvas around it. Was that a mistake? Regardless, by now the two arrived at the Tower of Isolation, and Vainia nodded at the sole guard standing nearby. He was dozing off, and probably didn’t even realize that his princess and a guest had walked past him. Vainia almost immediately realized that Veit spoke the truth; the gem had power, and seemed to radiate it into her very veins. Instinctively she held it close to her chest with one hand and held up the hem of her long violet dress with the other. “Where are you taking me?” Veit inquired as he followed her up the stairs in the back of the stone tower. “Are we going to plan something? How long will you be staying here?” “At least another week. I have obligations here, for now, including the one I took a break from to find you about to kill my guards.” Veit had no shame, and simply nodded his head in agreement. “You’re not wrong. But, a week? Are you keeping in contact with the Barons?” Deep inside, he wanted to return to Shorica. The chances of Inusia attacking the country were high, and he would meet battle on a large-scale for the first time in ages. “Not yet,” Vainia admitted. She had sent out word to Shorekeep earlier, but made sure her messenger was staying safely incognito. It was likely that the Queen’s Gulf was being heavily patrolled by Inusian forces. “I will return. The nation will survive.” They arrived at Vainia’s room, and she unlocked it with a key she kept in her bra. She nodded at the inside of the room as she held the tall oaken door open. “You will be sleeping inside here.” Her Knight was not amused. “You’re keeping me locked up in your room,” he said bluntly, “like I’m your pet.” “I told you that you aren’t supposed to be here. If my father saw you, I don’t know if I could keep you from being executed. How would I justify you being here?” A laugh from Veit erupted, followed by a confident smile and narrowed eyes. “He can try and execute me. But it won’t work. You know that.” “And you know that I won’t let you kill my own soldiers,” Vainia rebuked with a somber look. “Just work with me here. It’s only for a week. I can’t have you strutting around the castle. Not in Mortis.” “I don’t need to sleep.” “Too bad. You’re going to, and that’s an order.” The princess looked over her scowling Knight with a hint of concern. “You were hurt.” “I’ll be fine. I always am. It doesn’t hurt.” “Of course not…” She sighed. “Look, I have to return to the feast. I have favors I need my parents to do for me, and they won’t do them if I ignore all their invitations.” Veit growled but walked inside her room, taking a moment to bow his head and duck under her door. “I didn’t know you could be so immature and stubborn,” Vainia said with a quiet chuckle. “Being stubborn is what keeps me alive. I won’t let death take me, not yet. I have not fought my last battle yet.” Veit removed his cloak and looked back at Vainia with a toothy smile. “And you won’t, not for a long time.” She tried to hide her disturbed concern as she passed him the Crystal to keep in the room. “Promise me that. For as long as I am Queen and Empire, you will not die.” An image of her grandmother came into her head, old blind and boisterous Savage Queen Nolterya, and her prophecies. Nolterya’s spirit would live on with her, Nolstuvainia Sestrum So’octio, and there would be no further disappointments. The Knight Constantus Veit could only smile back at her grimly as he sat down and crossed his legs. “I will never die.” ***** Days passed, and Vainia once again began to immerse herself in books. There was nothing in the libraries of Grainis that she had not already memorized years before, but now with the clearness of her mature and jaded eyes, she could read everything with less speculation and more focus. Tales of religious deities and their miracles teased her of possible phenomenon in the future. Actions of heroes and villains inspired her for future movements. Legends of risen dynasties and great kingdoms taught her new ways of ruling, new propositions for government formations, and new strategies for armies large and small. She was always in the library nowadays, refusing to make audience with her parents or the new prince for days. The time to speak to them would come, but first, Vainia knew she had research to do and plans to make. Asearya and Tasshon both visited her often, as did Veit in the dead of night, but she didn’t entertain their presence for too long. They were her close friends and confidantes, but they were not the pillar to her goals, not now. The princess, as she often did, soon began to sleep with her head in books and awake hours later, eyes yearning to digest more knowledge. She craved knowledge like it was a drug to whom she was addicted. It was the fuel to her internal fire, the endless search for the knowing and the eluding that came with it. Lost structures of Shimura, crushed Inusian regions and their languages, awesome feats of Mortisian kings, exciting tales of Shorican seafarers, all ground to dust and forgotten beneath the harsh heel of Inusian expansionism. So ingrained in the genetic material of the modern day citizen was the nation’s imperialism that very few people at all ever bothered to study history. What was most mind-boggling to Vainia was that the information was there, always, and never hidden. The world had documented proof of atrocities Inusians committed in the name of expansionist glory, yet it chose to ignore them and move on, backs borne carelessly to the past. Vainia could not forget the past, nor could she ignore the evil practices of those before her. No matter what she told her Barons or her soldiers or the people who toiled for her – the restoration of Mortis as a central power and the destruction of the Inusian Empire would always be her sole goal. Being here, in her true home and the heart of long-term wounding of an entire people, reminded her of that with every breath she took. Soon, days and days after Veit’s appearance and the initial feast, Vainia was only a few pages away from finishing a particularly engrossing historical volume – ‘The Frontiers of a Wasteland’. It was the only surviving tome she had ever found that described, with a high degree of accuracy, the actions of the Second Star, Visael Somari, Mortis’ second king. “All of life is an invisible throne,” Visael II was quoted as saying, “and at birth one must choose to rule atop it or kneel before it. This is the choice that separates a fool from a wise man.” It was a quote Vainia recognized, for it was the origin to a heavily simplified proverb known the world over: “There must always be a king. A wise man knows when he is a king, and when he is a servant.” The princess closed the novel with finality. She knew what her choice was, and it was a choice she would stand by until her last breath. Just as she looked up decisively, Vainia noticed incoming footsteps to her position in the royal library. She sighed and ran her hand through her unrestrained brown hair. “I did not expect that my decree for total privacy to go ignored. What fool disturbs me?” “Is it regal to call your future husband a fool, Princess? I notice our lady Queen partakes in the habit often, and as you know I am ignorant of many royal practices.” The familiar voice of Prince Magnus drafted into the hall of books, and the familiar sneer of him soon followed in finding Vainia seated at a desk. He looked down at her, surrounded on three sides by books, and raised an eyebrow. “I did not expect to find anyone here in this ancient archive of dust, let alone a princess.” “And I did not expect to come home to a bigger fool than my father next in line for the throne.” Vainia stood and started to neatly stack up the books strewn about her. “Surprises abound for everyone, apparently.” “Oh, you’re not bitter, are you? But you will still be the Queen! The mantle on your shoulders will still be the most decorated and lusted after in all the world!” Magnus let slide her insult brusquely. “Is that all this is to you? Having a mantle and a soulless wife to hold on your arm and show off?” Magnus gave a hesitant smile. “What else is there to do? The world has been at peace for 800 years. Your war is unnecessary. I would seek to bring stability and happiness back to our people.” “No, that is what I seek to do.” She brushed past him after having put back all the volumes she had been exploring, and started for the entrance of the large library, some thirteen floors down. The prince followed her persistently, and in the back of Vainia’s mind she recalled a similar situation happening to her months ago. Her frown deepened. “If you think this world is at peace, you are more than just a fool, but a blind idiot as well.” The prince gave a hesitant laugh. “You’re a lot more cynical than I remember. You really have changed.” “Have I? I think I’ve just seen the world for what it is. Here, the people are blind. Brainwashed. Everyone conforms to their servitude and low status, because they are told it is how it should be. Should suffering be accepted for the sake of peace, Prince Magnus?” For once, the sneer was absent from the prince’s face, and he was momentarily silent with thought. “Does this quest of yours really make you happy? Wouldn’t you be happier living with me in riches, wanting for nothing? Leaving no man dead for your own wishes?” “I would not wish such a miserable existence on the worst of my enemies.” The two arrived at the ground floor of the library, and midday sunlight beamed bright into the barely populated archive. Both prince and princess squinted at first into the early afternoon radiance before walking out of the library. Vainia started toward her tower, but stopped when the prince spoke to her again. “The feast is tonight. The large one. That was why I came, to summon and remind you of it.” Vainia silently cursed in High Mortisian. She had forgotten, but she was sure that Asearya would not. Everything was likely prepared for her. “Very well, then. Thank you.” “Will you be leaving, afterwards? I’ve noticed your men preparing themselves and keeping their things packed.” “Yes, most likely.” As she spoke Vainia did not turn back or pay much attention to him, but the prince’s undertone of sadness did not go unnoticed by her. She smiled slyly. “Will you miss my presence? I didn’t think you had such a soft spot for one who stands in the way of the throne.” “How could a future king not miss his queen?” Vainia frowned with distaste. “I will return, with a true crown on my head. Do not worry about that.” She started off again. “One last thing…” The prince hesitated, and his face muddled with confusion. “Lady Nolterya sent a message for you. Something like… ‘You, too, will be blind. Embrace it.’ Yes, I believe that’s what it was…?” “…Hm. Another prophecy.” Vainia took it to heart, memorized the passage, and instantly pushed it from her mind. “My thanks. I will see you at the feast, Prince Magnus,” she said. Magnus’ response was not swift enough to catch her as she hurried on to the Tower of Isolation, and she left him behind outside of the library. She did not waste time pondering on her grandmother’s cryptic words, nor did she say anything to the various guards that were posted around her Tower and its interior. She thought, instead, of how she wanted her forces to be out of the country by midnight. Her research had landed upon a plateau, and the longer she was away from her conquered kingdom, the more anxious she got. Vainia did not speak again until she was a few steps down the hall from her bedroom, and she was met with Tasshon and Asearya both. Asearya bowed at her presence and Tasshon raised his fist to his chest in salutations. “Good evening,” the princess replied briskly. Her two guardians returned to their neutral poses. “We’ve been looking for you everywhere, Lady Vainia!” Asearya looked equal parts disheveled and irritated. “Any later and you would have been late for your own feast!” Vainia scoffed at the thought of her father raising a feast for anyone but himself as the true target audience. “Regardless, I have your dress and accessories laid out on your bed, and I can have your hair and makeup completed immediately after your bath.” The princess waved off Asearya’s concerns and walked to the door of her room. “Punctual as always, Asearya. What would I do without you?” She turned back and looked at Tasshon. “You’re not dressed yet, either. Do you need something, my Baron?” Tasshon looked anxious. “At the risk of seeming anxious… Would it be wrong of me to assume that we are leaving immediately after the feast?” One of Vainia’s eyebrows rose, and she looked at him with a savvy smile. Was she that predictable, or had he been working on his tactics? “That would be the best possible option, especially considering the feast will likely end in the middle of the night. No, you would not be wrong to assume such a thing. Are you prepared?” Tasshon nodded, but Asearya stepped forward and spoke in his place. “We both are. I’m coming with you, Lady Vainia.” “To Shorekeep?” The princess hadn’t expected this. “Yes. I refuse to leave you again. Where my queen goes, I go. For her glory!” “It’s ‘For the Queen’s glory,’” Tasshon said with a frown. “We talked about this…” Vainia laughed and opened her door. “It is rare that I see such determination within you, Asearya. It truly has been too long. Very well then; you will come with me. Do not tell Mother or Father about this, though.” She nodded at the two again. “You may return when I finish my bath, Asearya. Tasshon, go get dressed.” Her two confidants left with a correct mantra of ‘For the Queen’s glory!’, and Vainia closed her bedroom door behind her. A shadow melted out from the wall beside the door and stepped forward once Vainia walked further into her room. “Black is a new color for you,” she stated nonchalantly as she started to take off her sweatshirt and shoes. “I didn’t think you’d want your maid to know I was in here,” Constantus Veit responded darkly. “Good call. She would have attacked you. You’ve done well in keeping yourself hidden, I must say.” “Following orders used to be my best trait. That’s obvious, by now.” The Knight cleared his throat. “I’m not invited to the feast, am I?” “Of course not.” Vainia took off her comfortable pants and started to run the bath water in her luxurious attached bathroom. Its walls were decorated lavishly by large mirrors. “I have a much more exciting task for you. The preparations for our departure must be made by someone I can trust.” The steaming hot water blasted into the large bathtub with high speed, and would fill it up within a minute or two. She glanced back at Veit. “That’s your definition of exciting?” He shrugged most of his black cloak behind his shoulders and crossed his thick arms. “And I told you about trusting me. Or anyone else, for that matter.” “I give you an order, and I know it will be carried out without issue. Is that not a reason to trust?” Vainia removed her undergarments and stepped into the tub before slowly sinking down into its depths. The princess closed her eyes peacefully and laid her arms on the sides of the tub with a content sigh. “Thank you for your diligence, as always. I have many bodyguards and guardians, but only one Knight.” Veit stood in place breathing audibly from his nose for a moment. Without any further words, he beat a fist on his chest and silently left the bedroom. ***** This time, there was no merriment to be found at the palace’s great hall. A great air of restless sorrow held over the entire premises, either from soldiers who knew that they would be leaving the luxurious palace and returning to Shorekeep, or other soldiers who would be seeing their beloved princess leave them. All of the palace staff prematurely began to mourn Vainia’s departure, perhaps a bit more dramatically than was necessary. Despite almost every seat in the hall being filled with only a handful of guards outside, the entire feast was mostly hushed and only the clattering of silverware was audible. Vainia was late, and when she finally entered the great hall, all others had been seated and received their first course of the meal. The princess wore a conservative gown of deep purple and black, and her high black heels clicked loudly on the floor as she walked through the halls. Behind her followed Asearya in a simple white dress and Tasshon in his repaired Baron uniform. This time, Vainia had no choice but to sit near the head of the royal table. Her two closest confidantes here sat on her right and left; across from her sat Prince Magnus; at the furthest end of the table sat Chancellor Liteus, and next to him an empty chair. This vacant seat was presumably for Savage Queen Nolterya, who had apparently chosen not to attend. Above the table on a sort of stage sat the King and Queen at their own wide table, seated next to each other and in a position to look down at the rest of the hall. Above the feasting tables the ceiling had been removed momentarily, leaving the night and its dwindling moon to look down upon the banquet and illuminate it with natural, brooding evening fog. Vainia took her seat and the table and smoothed out her dress before greeting all of the guests around her. She immediately noticed the atmosphere of the feast. “No drunken escapades tonight, Father? Prince?” Magnus looked up at her from beneath his brow. “There are some things not worth celebrating.” She assumed he was referring to her flight. “It must be done. I will return, Prince Magnus. I didn’t think you were the sentimental type.” “You’re making a very big mistake, young lady,” her father said from above the dais. Vainia looked up to him as she stuck a fork into her tender piece of steak being served to her. He continued to speak. “You’re too old for me to sensibly order around, but I’d hoped my daughter had sense enough to listen to her father in matters like this.” “If I inherited your sense I wouldn’t be doing any of this,” Vainia mumbled under her breath, but immediately after she stood up and smiled gracefully at her father. Seeing him so stressed out about her unyielding goals filled her with a sick sense of pride and victory. Louder, she continued, for all in the hall to hear: “Come, Father, this is a feast to celebrate my departure! My Shorican men are rested and the palace men are as healthy as ever. But they are all Mortisian men, and all of them haven’t seen our family reunited in years! Is this not reason enough to enjoy this last feast together, before the world changes? Can we not enjoy this night?” Her father’s somber look did not fade, but he permitted himself a small smile. “I cannot enjoy this night,” he said just loud enough for those at the royal table to hear. Vainia looked him in the eyes and her smile melted off with irritation, even as those around her started to cheer and perk up in response to her encouraging words. When Vainia sat down again, Asearya rubbed the back of the princess’ hand and held to her a cup of water. “Relax yourself, Lady Vainia. You’re correct. This is your time.” The encouragement worked, slightly, and Vainia forced a somber smile onto her face as the great hall started to rumble with various conversations again. Prince Magnus took a heavy sip from his large wine goblet before looking down at Asearya from beneath his cleanly groomed hair. “Why is this maid at the table of royals? The man I can understand, being that he was officially appointed to a position of authority much like our own Chancellor… But a maid, thinking herself the equal of a royal?” Vainia’s smile faded as fast as it emerged, but it was Asearya who responded. She looked at the Prince with unmasked hatred in her heart, but the long faced maid was not aggressive or angered. “I am not equal to Lady Vainia, and I never will be. But as her personal maid, I will never leave her side. Not again.” The table was silent for a lengthy amount of time, save for the tense sound of eating, until Chancellor Liteus cleared his throat and took a small sip from his own cup of wine. He still had a regrettable countenance, but looked to Vainia with hope. “Please excuse the prince, Lady Nolstuvainia. He hasn’t completed all of his lessons yet, and his tolerance for alcohol is notoriously low. Please accept my deepest apologies as well, Miss Asearya.” Both ladies nodded without looking up from their plates. “Further, it has truly been so long since I’ve seen you in such an outfit, Lady Nolstuvainia. It suits you.” “I despise it.” “Fair enough.” Liteus was wearing a bright and conspicuous suit, as he often did, but it was beginning to look a little tight on his expanding body. “Did you take time to enjoy your time at home while you were here, at least?” She wondered how she should answer that. It was possible to relish in basic nostalgia based on memories around the palace, but that was childish and left Vainia with no time for productive thought. She hadn’t left the library or her tower once except to come here. “I suppose,” she said safely. “I will have much more free time the next time we return here, I imagine.” Liteus cocked his head and took another sip of wine. The moonlight made his fading hairline and bald spots very clear for all to see, despite his attempts to comb his hair over it. “Regrettable. This whole business is simply quite regrettable.” “Is it?” said Prince Magnus. He had just swallowed the last of his steak, and snapped at a wandering servant for another plate. Immediately afterwards, the king bellowed for another course, and the entire hall erupted in a short cheer of agreement. “The wine has been flowing freely and her future husband has been available for the entire week. She chose herself to be holed up in that dusty old library. What is there to regret?” He gulped down another swig of wine and looked back to Vainia. “Tell me, Princess Vainia, do you still dream of that castle in the sky?” “What?” She looked up at him, genuine confusion on her face. “I know you remember! You used to speak of it to everyone who would listen, including friends of your father, which often included mine. He loved to tell me about your stories. The castle in the sky with the gallant prince who will take you above the world! Everything would be yours! Don’t you remember? Isn’t that what you’re still dreaming of?” “…No.” Vainia looked down thoughtfully as Tasshon and Asearya both glanced over to her. “No, I don’t dream of a fantastical castle in the sky, nor do I await a prince to help me with anything.” “You’ve found one, you know,” Magnus continued. “I’m your prince. And the castle in the sky is one I will have built atop a great tower, high above the tallest mountain of Mortis, so you can see all over our country!” Liteus wiped at his mouth with a napkin and sighed. “Without even going into the logistical fallacies of such a thing, aren’t you being a little disrespectful, Prince Magnus?” The prince chuckled, and the din of the feasting hall began to grow to normal proportions. “No such thing. What, she can be ambitious, and I can’t? I looked into some of the speeches you’ve given, princess, and honestly it resonates with me. I want to be rich and powerful, too. Don’t we all? But I will obtain it, and without any suicidal wars. Stay here, and listen to us! Rule with us!” Before Vainia could respond, her mother the queen stepped down from the royal pseudo-stage and seated herself in Nolterya’s vacant chair. “Now, now,” Queen Varinamious said with a sultry tone, “Liteus is right, dear prince. Listen to your elders.” Magnus shot a defiant glare at her, but kept his mouth shut and started devouring his next course of food. Liteus visibly let out a sigh of relief. “How wonderful of you to join us, Mother,” Vainia said as she drank from her glass of water. “We haven’t truly spoken in so long.” “And we won’t have a chance to, with your impending departure, dear!” The queen entertained a look of painful disdain as she fanned herself. “My darling daughter will return to me safe and sound, of course?” “Of course.” “And she won’t have the enmity of the entire world behind her next time, will she? Or bring about logistical disasters, or force her parents to bend over backwards in relentless apologies?” Vainia paused from her eating and looked at her mother from the sides of her eyes. “There will be no other nations to contest my actions when next I return.” Above, the moonlight seemed to dim, and the light in the hall grew less illuminating. “Of course!” The queen smiled and her eyes narrowed. “You really have grown so much, Vainia. I remember when we would play in the courtyards, and you would run around my feet as I sung you songs in Refined High. Oh, do you remember the songs?” “I do.” A lie. “But that was in the past, Mother. Things change. We can never return to that garden.” She meant it literally, since the greenery around the palace had gradually been decreasing in quality for years, and figuratively. Those memories were a long time ago, if they ever really existed, and she was a changed woman since then. The innocence of those years would never again grace her. “Perhaps. But… you will always be precious to me, Vainia.” The queen looked her startled daughter in the eyes and smiled. “Forgive my sentimentalism, but I haven’t seen you in so long. It pained my heart.” Prince Magnus lifted his head and opened his mouth to say something in response, but without even looking at him Queen Varinamious raised her hand and snapped at him. “Quiet, conryel ahn rako. Vein Gotten!” Magnus said nothing and lowered his head to his plate again. Despite herself, Vainia couldn’t help herself from smiling demurely, and Asearya laughed out loud from beneath her hand. “You’re being quite candid tonight, Mother,” Vainia said with amusement. Behind the royal table, the din of the festive feast only managed to increase, and almost surpassed the normal loud volume of a feast – but the mood and atmosphere was much the same. “I’m not getting any younger, dear,” Queen Varinamious said with a demure smile of her own. The average height woman stood, with her graying brown hair tied up in a magnificent hairpiece above her head, and started to walk back to the dais. “Remember, darling, you will always be precious to me.” The sound of moving tablecloths and metal clanging on metal quietly rippled through the hall. As the queen left, Asearya found herself turning and looking over the massive dining hall with disquiet. “Is every single guard eating here tonight? The hall is never usually this full…” Before Vainia could look or say anything in response to the offhand remark, the king stood up and welcomed his wife back to her lordly seat before loudly clearing his throat. This was the traditional call to attention, and as the host of the feast, the king had absolute authority here. Within moments, the entire hall had fallen deathly silent. “As we all know, this is the celebratory feast for my daughter, Crown Princess Nolstuvainia Sestrum! She is the miracle child of our nation, foolish though she is, and her future is the future of Mortis!” Prince Magnus was the only Mortisian in attendance not to smile at the king’s words. “But so far she has not heeded any of my warnings, nor those of the people she cares about. That means this feast is also a going-away party, of sorts.” The applause grew somber and the audience, remorseful. “I know, I know! We will all miss her! We have been through countless years with our Princess, and tonight we have already been through nine courses. Let us finish the night with one more course that surpasses all others, a course that will never be forgotten, and let us wish our Princess luck and glory!” The king raised his glass of wine with a vicious roar, and all around the men and women in attendance of the feast replied with equal heart. Waiters prepared for the final course of the feast began to walk through the aisles of the large hall as the moonlight started to dwindle and be covered by roaming clouds. Vainia looked to her parents with pride as her father sat down. This was new – actual support, even if it was grudging, of her goals? Her parents were actually learning and accepting of her! She opened her mouth to give thanks to her parents, but froze when she noticed her father’s look of odd pride, and her mother’s look of regretful remorse. Her mother made eye contact with her as her father avoided it, and mouthed two words to her: “I’m sorry.” A surprised yelp burst into the air from the back of the room, followed by a scream, and another, and another. Vainia looked back with confusion, only to see first-hand as a waiter arrived at the table where her Eternal Corps members were seated. He laid down the silver platter of food and pulled from it a long knife, which he then used to brutally stab right into the neck of Hrevi Charicus and out again. The immaculate silver tablecloth on the wide table was immediately ruined by the flowing lifeblood of the Eternal Corps member as she fell face down, eyes wide open, and bled. Vainia looked back to her parents with confusion as all around her waiters attacked seated guests, and Mortisian guards stood and pulled forth their swords. “What is going on?!” the princess cried out to her parents. She stood slower than Asearya and Tasshon did, who immediately brandished knives from their plates – the only weapons they had access to in the usually peaceful dining hall. In the corner of her eye, she saw Prince Lee be quickly escorted out of the hall by Chancellor Liteus. “Mother! Father! What is the meaning of this?!” The king stood as screams started to permeate the entirety of the night. “This is what happens when you disobey the king,” he said gravely and calmly. A look of determined resignation was hard on his face. “You will not leave this hall until you swear to stay in Mortis for the rest of your life.” “Get back!” screamed Asearya, but Vainia could only stumble forward into the table and look around with confusion. She had assumed the palace guards who stood would quickly eradicate the traitorous waiters, but to her horror she realized they were allied with them. All around her, her soldiers and sympathizers were being slaughtered and cut apart like pieces of meat. ‘We were the final course,’ Vainia realized, ‘Brought to our deaths with smiles on our faces. Fed until we were bursting, only to be eaten.’ The two guards she had met in her grandmother’s chambers were seated a table across from her, and with wide eyes Vainia saw them get their stomachs slashed open by fellow palace guards with long knives. Their bowels spilled onto the table below them, loud and red, and they both fell to the floor. Vainia felt herself growing nauseous. ‘I ate too much. I planned too late. I’m too late…’ Her thoughts were moving slow, and everything around was moving fast. Her soldiers had no weapons, but once the initial surprise had passed in a few moments, they had stood up and started to fight the Mortisian men. Her khaki-uniformed soldiers were outnumbered, overfed, and unarmed, but they fought bravely. They fought bravely and died. Asearya pushed Vainia back once again as she threw a knife into a rushing Mortisian man’s mouth. The maid screamed with horror as the man gurgled and vomited his own blood, but her hands were swift in retrieving his own knife and brandishing it to an oncoming man. Tasshon had pushed forward, tackling two guards away from Vainia’s table, and started to force his way towards making an exit. Vainia still could not fathom what was going on. She realized, very soon, that she was bent over on the dais, vomiting at her parent’s heels. Above the cacophonous din of the feast of men, Vainia swore she could hear the sound of air pressure, of machines and oncoming engines. The princess looked up to her parents and wiped at her mouth. She was beginning to understand, finally, and pure hatred twisted her countenance now like never before. “How could you do this,” she spat, “to men of Mortis? To your people?! You did this!!” “They are not our people,” the queen said with truly remorseful eyes. Still, she wore a demure smile, and covered her lower face with her hands. “You are. You will be the only one spared.” “There are Inusians coming in to make sure none of your troops escape on any ships, either,” the king added. He was visibly disturbed, but despite the situation took a sip from his cup of wine. “There will be no escape. You brought this on yourself.” “How dare you?!” Vainia screamed. Her emotions were beginning to catch up to her, but the logic was still lagging. ‘Fight,’ she thought, over and over again. ‘Fight them. Kill them. Kill them all.’ Her fingertips began to glow with power. “How dare you do this?! What sort of people are you? Have you no shame?!” The king sighed and wiped his face with a fat hand. “I am a king. I do what must be done. There is no shame in peace, Nolstuvainia.” “No,” the princess said as she started to climb onto the dais. “You’re not a king. You’re a pathetic joke. Conryel an frietuvre! Ruri ahn so’infii rako!” She cursed him, a thousand times over, and slowly started to walk towards the table of her parents. “Don’t you dare question me!” yelled King Mateulikus in response. He was almost as visibly angry as Vainia was, but still did not stand. In the distance, the sound of oncoming airships increased in volume. Only a minute or two had passed, but the hall was still erupting with sound. “You don’t understand the things we had to do in order to make up for your foolish attack. Keeping you here forever was the only way for the Inusians not to ruin our country! What do you know of being a king? What do you know of anything?!” “I know you’re doing it wrong!” A particularly piercing scream rang out from behind Vainia’s and she paused in her advance just long enough to look back. She witnessed Asearya get stabbed right in the torso, straight through with a long knife, and above them all a squadron of oncoming Inusian attack airships threatened to blot out the shrouded moon. Vainia lost her words, and could no longer even think to herself. All she could hear were screams and whispers, whispers of a lost and forgotten tongue, foreign to the world but warm and familiar to her. She heard incantations, spells and rituals, ancient commands to raze whole cities to the ground. A runic command came to her, and the princess screamed it at the top of her lungs as she pointed her hands to her parents. They looked at her with surprise and concern, but the light glowing from Vainia’s fingers soon became almost blinding to them. She couldn’t close her eyes. Vainia witnessed every moment of her murdering the King and Queen of Mortis, as the ethereal rune greatsword summoned to her right hand crushed through her father’s bones and organs, and as the countless hooks-on-chains summoned from her left hand ripped off all of her mother’s visible skin, followed by her eyes, lungs, and heart. She watched as the runes were called to her control, and she directed them to attack and kill, and they disappeared when their task was done. She watched the destroyed corpses of her parents sink to the floor, staining her dress and the dais with blood, bone, and gory flesh chunks. She watched Mortis die. A loud whining rang through the air, and immediately after that the hall was quiet for a moment again. Vainia was thrown off her feet and into the large puddle of fluids in front of her, though whether she was tackled or pushed by force, she couldn’t tell. Ringing cracked the atmosphere for a long while, the ringing of an explosion, and suddenly Vainia was hot. Burning hot. The entire hall was hot. ‘Is this hell?’ she wondered. She slowly pushed herself up off the ground, but a heavy weight was upon her back. After she started to move the weight shifted, and someone pulled her up to her feet. Vainia opened her eyes with a squint, and in front of her she saw fire, airships rushing through the night air, and corpses. A hall of death, all around her. In front of her, holding onto her arm with a flaming cloak, she saw her Knight, Constantus Veit. Her Crimson Death, Gin Taoris. She saw the man who was always there for her. “Come on,” he said roughly once he gave her a good look over. “Our boat has been prepared. Tasshon’s leading the way there. We have to go, now! Come on!” He pulled her roughly, and from her shocked weakness Vainia faltered and fell into Veit’s arms. He gathered her in his grip with swiftness and jumped down from the dais, paying no heed to the flickering flames or moaning cadavers around them. “I told you to trust no one,” Veit mumbled. He sounded disappointed. She heard him. In the arms of her Knight, Vainia cried. Tears mixed with the blood streaming down her face. She cried as Mortis died. ...End of Part Forty-One. <- Previous Page | Main Page | Next Page->